Kael didn't chase her—not yet.
He turned back to Selra Vint, bound and gasping. Her eyes flicked to the hallway where the masked woman had vanished, then back to Kael's blade.
"No more tricks," Kael said. "Just answers."
She swallowed hard. "You should have let her kill me. It would've been cleaner."
Kael's silence was colder than steel.
Selra broke. "They're rebuilding it. The old network. Veylan's alive. He's not hiding anymore—he's recruiting."
Kael's fingers tightened on the hilt. "Recruiting for what?"
Her voice was barely a whisper:
"To finish what they started… and kill what's left of your bloodline."
---
Hours Later — Campfire Outside the Fortress
Kael sat alone, the fire casting flickers on his face. Selra was gone—he had ended it, cleanly. Her name struck through on the scroll, blood still wet on the parchment.
But his mind wasn't calm.
The woman in the silver mask had moved like Veylan. Spoke like him. She knew things only his old unit would know. And she wore the same sigil: a serpent coiled around a blade.
He wasn't fighting remnants anymore.
He was fighting a resurrection.
---
Elsewhere – A Dark Chamber Beneath the Capital
Veylan stood over a table littered with old records—photos, blood-sealed documents, and Kael's family crest burned onto the center.
"He's alive," said the woman from earlier, now unmasked.
Veylan didn't smile.
He simply placed a new name at the top of a fresh list:
Kael Voss.
"Then we move faster," Veylan said. "Before he remembers the final name."
---
That Night — Kael's Dream
He saw fire again.
His wife screaming.
His daughter's small hand slipping from his fingers.
But then…
A whisper through the flames:
"I'm still here."
Kael jolted awake, drenched in sweat. His hand reached instinctively for his blade.
That voice…
It was hers.
And it wasn't just a dream.
To be continue...